Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Dec;100(12):2464-72.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.188136. Epub 2010 Oct 21.

Smoking characteristics of adults with selected lifetime mental illnesses: results from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey

Annette K McClave  1 , Lela R McKnight-Eily, Shane P Davis, Shanta R Dube
Affiliations

Smoking characteristics of adults with selected lifetime mental illnesses: results from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey

Annette K McClave et al. Am J Public Health. 2010 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: We estimated smoking prevalence, frequency, intensity, and cessation attempts among US adults with selected diagnosed lifetime mental illnesses.

Methods: We used data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey on 23 393 noninstitutionalized US adults to obtain age-adjusted estimates of smoking prevalence, frequency, intensity, and cessation attempts for adults screened as having serious psychological distress and persons self-reporting bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity, dementia, or phobias or fears.

Results: The age-adjusted smoking prevalence of adults with mental illness or serious psychological distress ranged from 34.3% (phobias or fears) to 59.1% (schizophrenia) compared with 18.3% of adults with no such illness. Smoking prevalence increased with the number of comorbid mental illnesses. Cessation attempts among persons with diagnosed mental illness or serious psychological distress were comparable to attempts among adults without mental illnesses or distress; however, lower quit ratios were observed among adults with these diagnoses, indicating lower success in quitting.

Conclusions: The prevalence of current smoking was higher among persons with mental illnesses than among adults without mental illnesses. Our findings stress the need for prevention and cessation efforts targeting adults with mental illnesses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Age-adjusted prevalence of smoking among persons with a lifetime mental illness, serious psychological distress, or one or more lifetime mental illnesses: National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2007. Note. ADD = attention deficit disorder. 95% confidence intervals are in parentheses. aPercentages are age-adjusted to standardized population estimates for 2000. bLifetime mental illnesses include bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity, dementia, and phobias or fears.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and productivity losses—United States, 2000–2004. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2008;57(45):1226–1228 - PubMed
    1. McGinnis JM, Foege WH. Actual causes of death in the United States. JAMA. 1993;270(18):2207–2212 - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cigarette smoking among adults—United States, 2007. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2008;57(45):1221–1226 - PubMed
    1. Leonard S, Adler LE, Benhammou K, et al. Smoking and mental illness. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2001;70(4):561–570 - PubMed
    1. Kalman G, Morrisette SB, George TP. Comorbidity of smoking in patients with psychiatric and substance use disorders. Am J Addict. 2005;14(2):106–123 - PMC - PubMed